Kick off to a new me!

The Incredible Shrinking Me! 

This is a blog meant to inspire myself when on this journey.  You see, I am an overweight mother of 5, a happy wife, and a 7th grade teacher of English.  Through the years, unfortunately, through our passion for life and food, my husband and I have become somewhat overweight.  Me... a LOT... him... somewhat.  We LOVE the kitchen and creating food for our loved ones.  Steve, my husband, has become somewhat obsessed with making the best of the best food imaginable.  In his endeavor, he (and I) have put on quite a few pounds.  Recently our daughter Amber came up with a plan.  She encouraged us to check into "Eat to Live" by Dr. Fuhrman.  I was a bit skeptical.  She even devised a plan, a lottery of sorts, to keep us on track.  We would begin this new lifestyle on July 1, 2012 and continue for 6 weeks.  At the end of 6 weeks, we would determine who the winner was, and disperse the funds.  Amber knew she had to end a week earlier, so she began a week earlier.  Well, Amber... the twig of a girl that she is, found out that this was not exactly meant for her body type.  She quickly bowed out.  Steve and I on the other hand, determined to stick it out.  I was still a little uneasy about the whole thing, but figured I would go along with it for fun.  July 1 came and we began.  We went to Sam's and bought all sorts of YUMMY and DELICIOUS produce, and made sure we had a stock of beans and brown rice.  Well, a spontaneous trip to Utah took Steve away, and the younger two boys (Dallin and Samuel) went off to EFY in San Antonio.  That left me alone in the house for 4 days!  No one would even know if I was cheating or not!  I began texting my pictures of what I ate to Amber.  She in turn would encourage me.  It just became a fun game for me (even without the initial lottery we had planned).  I would get a rush, just sending those pictures to Amber and seeing her response.  My goodness!  I did not expect to start feeling so terrific so soon!  This diet, or health plan if you will, was just infectious.  I began posting pictures on facebook, and BAM!  I got tremendous response.  Amber insisted that I start blogging about my journey, and posting pictures and recipes.  I am BRAND NEW to blogging, and I don't know my way around just yet.  I won't bore everyone with the fine details just yet.  I will add them as I go.  But for now, WELCOME to my wonderful health journey.  This is day 13 for me.  My diet is completely vegan, and I am completely satisfied.  I can't believe I am saying this, because my biggest weakness has been my sweet tooth.  With all of the fruit that I eat, I don't miss sweets one bit!  Okay, for tonight, I will post a picture of my husband and I at a Valentine's lunch.  Also I will post tonight's dinner.  I promise to post recipes as we make them.  I will learn more about blogging and make this more interesting as the time comes along as well.  Here goes nothing!